Diaries

___I miss Lloyd Carr. You look up the word integrity, there is a picture there of Lloyd Carr. When the players heaved Lloyd onto their shoulders after that win over Florida I will admit that I bawled like a little girl. Whatever you thought of Lloyd as a football coach(and he was far from perfect), you had to admit that he was(is) a tremendous Michigan man.___I have been critical of Rich Rodriguez on many occasions. I've complained about the defense. I've complained at length about the quarterback situation. Mostly though, my complaints stemmed from the fact that he is not Lloyd Carr.___It's time we all got over that. Lloyd isn't coming back. And whatever you think about Rich Rodriguez as a man(And I myself see no indication that he is not a very good man) he has shown himself to be a very good football coach. If we give him four years, I can gaurantee that Michigan will be playing in BCS bowls every year again, facing the #1 or #2 team every three or four. If we do not let him do it here he WILL do it somewhere else, and we will be back to square one watching a less talented coach and less talented recruits try to rebuild this program from scratch.___Now the program is facing attacks from all sides. The former entity known as the Ann Arbor news tries to invent an academic scandal that does not exist. The local FM radio station is pushing 24 hour spartan propaganda, talking about a "lock down" of the state recruits--well, the ones outside the rival top 100 anyway. Now MSU's program is dominating the state, what with their second win over UM in this decade. Those idiots at 97.1 probably haven't had to refill their viagra prescriptions for the last year. Now the Detroit Free Press is seeking out disgruntled transfers and preying on over-trusting(dont want to call them naive) freshmen trying to build another scandal. Now the Free Press is trying to equate a pay for play basketball scandal that occured before some of these players were even born with the horrible possibility that Michigan practices too much. ___It's clearly compromising their educations, what with the team recording the higest grade point average ever.___The most troubling thing about the most recent attack is the likelihood that some coward drawing a check from the University is actively working to sabotage the program trying to get Rodriguez out. It looks like someone within the athletic department is feeding the Free Press these stories and telling them which former players they can milk the most venom out of.___In the face of all these attacks from within and without there is only one thing we can do. We need to get behind our guy. Whatever you think of Rodriguez's style or personality, he is the man that is leading our guys against the group of retards and assholes otherwise known as the local media. He is the man that is leading them against our hated rivals. Rodriguez needs and deserves our support, and we all need to fall in line behind him.___We need to get out to that Western game and make noise like that stadium has never seen. Win or lose, we need to get out and do it again for Notre Dame. We need to start buying those All In For Michigan towels like they are going out of style. I dont care what you do with them all. Some superglue and a certain publication's building comes to mind. Or some superglue and a certain reporter's car.We need to get after the Free Press's largest sponsors--Varsity Ford, Belle Tire, JCPennies, and Kroger. They've all got phone numbers and email options under "contact us" on their websites. I will post them if you like. We need to let them know that we will not stand for their continued financial support of these irresponsible sensationalists. Let them know Briarwood Ford, Kohls, Meijer and Discount Tire are just down the road.___Mostly though, we've just got to get behind our guy. And give him the time he needs to bring this team back where it belongs. Shoulder to shoulder with the best teams in college football.

I write because I fear the recent events may spell the end of the hopes for a Rich Rodriguez era at Michigan along the lines of a Fielding Yost, Fritz Crisler, Bo Schembechler or even a Lloyd Carr era at Michigan. Before you jump all over me, I assure you I am not a troll. I have followed Michigan football since the last time they had losing seasons before 2008. I was there when Bo was hired. I worked for ABC during 24-12. I wrote for the Daily. And, I've lived and died with the last second missed field goals, 1997, Crable's hit, and the horror.

I've also been a fan of the Rodriguez hiring. I still remember how excited I was when I checked my Blackberry on a train from New York to Washington on a Saturday afternoon and the Rodriguez rumors had hit the web. I also don't blame him -- much -- for last year's 3-9 season.

All that said, I think the turn in events makes it unlikely this hiring will turn out happily in the long term. I believe it will end in one of two ways: Michigan will go 5-7, 6-6 and 7-5 and the fan base will turn on Rodriguez; or Michigan will go 9-3 and Rodriguez will say I can coach just about anywhere so why do I need this crap and decide to start over somewhere else.

One of my responsibilities in my job is to act as an ethics advisor for a government agency. I regularly brief senior executives who join the agency about the ethics rules. For the most part, they are compliance rules -- don't work on things in which you have a financial interest, don't accept expensive lunches or gifts, etc. I also, however, talk about the infamous "Washington Post" test. Essentially there are a lot of things one does that are perfectly legal but have an appearance of not being kosher. If the Post -- or the Times or CNN -- get wind of the issue, the initial story is on page 1. When the story fails to pan out, it winds up on page B19. Everyone sees the first story; no one sees the exoneration.

So how does that impact the current situation. Well we all know the initial story is on page 1. The exoneration may come, but do you think the Freep is going to put it on page 1. Do you think ESPN is even going to run stories saying that nothing came of the allegations.

I'm not sure exactly how it came about but Rodriguez has done things to make himself a target. Perhaps it's jealousy. Perhaps it's that Rodriguez is a little arrogant. Perhaps he failed to kiss a couple of asses early on. But, whatever the issue, there's an issue. Once that happens, you have to be squeaky clean, or the first inkling of an issue will make it to page 1 and that appears to have happened here.

The fact that Rodriguez is doing exactly what 100+ other coaches is doing is irrelevant. No one else cares.

There may be some things that can rescue the situation. Perhaps the most likely is that I'm wrong about Rodriguez taking a hike. Hopefully his skin is a lot thicker than most people's and that that 9-3 season will not only quiet the critics but make him satisfied with his lot in Ann Arbor. Other scenarios are some of his brethren coming to his defense. We're not fans of Jim Tressel or Kirk Ferentz, but if they were to come out and say we've seen the stories and don't think there's a story, that would help immensely. Someone in the MSM could do some investigation of Rosenberg and totally destroy his story. If that were to happen soon, that too could lead to a favorable end to the story. I am, however, not optimistic and that makes me a little depressed at a time when I -- we -- should be looking forward to a season of redemption.

i'm not entirely sure what to think of all this. i really appreciate brian's in-depth analysis of all the allegations. while i think the actual content of the violations will be found to be minimal, the fact remains that these "student-athletes" are spending inordinate amounts of time on football, while still trying to carry on the facade (for many) of getting an education.

i've liked the RR hire since i heard of it. i just missed the bo era, but the predictable and underachieving teams since the early 90s were just maddening. sure, we won big ten titles. and once in a while we knocked off an sec team in a bowl game. but for the most part, we lost big (or worse, little) games it seemed like we should have won. there are a couple of anomalies - i don't know where we pulled that nc from in 97, nor the defeat of florida in 2007.

don't get me wrong - i have a lot of respect for lloyd carr, and i'm proud to have had him as coach at michigan for so long. he brought an air of responsibility and respectability to a fan base that really believes we do things the right way.

which brings me to my point. there's no denying these players spend upwards of 40 hours a week on football. how many of those are "voluntary" or mandated, honestly, i don't think there's a distinction. a virtual distinction, sure, but in reality, they're all mandated. i'm ok with that. to win, you have to be willing to make the sacrifices and put in the time.

if we're guilty, i'll take my lumps. ok, we broke the rules. give us our punishment...

but then go out and punish the other 100+ programs who do exactly the same thing. i doubt that michigan is unique in their interpretation and application of the "rules" regarding practice time. to keep up with the joneses, you have to work as hard as the joneses. so i do believe that everybody is doing it.

but what about the student side to these student athletes? is everybody going to stop doing "it"? or are the rules archaic enough to be changed? and if the rules are changed, what should they be changed to?

this is not really a new suggestion. maybe it's not particularly original. but i haven't seen it anywhere since this thing exploded. give these students a "professional sports" major. throw in some football (or hockey, baseball, basketball, rowing, golf, etc.) as part of their class load, and give them credit for it. that's quality learning that could (should?) lead to the attainment of a degree and definitely leads to the development of important life skills. throw in some finance and money management courses. maybe something on how the professional sports operate as businesses; what it means to have and/or be an agent; and, if you want, throw in the rest of the general ed requirements that all the rest of us have to take. during the season, let the sport be 8/12 units they're enrolled in. if you don't want to take up the whole year eg hockey, go to a quarter system that may more directly line up with the seasons.

not all these students will go pro. their degree will still serve them well. brian has raised many examples of athletes who used their "general studies" degrees to great advantage. and this is no different than art students, or architecture, music, english, history, and even some engineering students (not saying there's anything wrong with any of those majors - my sister is an art major and very happy; i have degrees in engineering and biology, and am working on a degree in education).

i don't like the idea of paying student athletes - let them go pro if they want to get paid. to me, college athletics is great because of the players and their allegiance to their schools (most of them, at least). but in this day and age of the huge cash grab at the expense of these students, give them a break.

i, for one, appreciate the culture change that's come with coaches rodriguez and barwis. i don't understand how suddenly coach lost his integrity when he left wvu, but wasn't a bum at wvu, clemson, tulane or glenville state. i don't see it. from the outside, and where i'm sitting, all the negative press has been largely vindictive, with little substance. and i think he's doing an outstanding job with our student athletes.

in summary, i think some ncaa policies are a bit outdated and could use some refreshing. while the ideas presented here may seem ridiculous to some, i would argue that some creative thinking would go a long way to reconciling big-time college athletics with the concept of student athlete that so many people (including me) cling to.

Yesterday I was on the Huge show for a couple minutes after the Rosenberg interview. I gave my 2 cents and then headed home disgusted. Then I got on Facebook and HUGE had an opinion poll. It asked, "Why has Rich Rodriguez never been accepted at Michigan?" and the frustration just came out of me. I posted and sent an email while a little pissy, frustrated and Feeling like I had to get my thoughts off my chest. This is what I wrote:
Listen its a lot more complicated than most are willing to talk about so bare with me for a moment.... When RR came to Ann Arbor the perfect storm was forming&he inherited it. First you had people who had been getting angrier&angrier over the years by our underachieving & constant losses to OSU, so they were already edgy & MANY wanted a change.
Second the Les Miles rumors put everybody in a state of frenzy because he had ties to UM & was already at a powerhouse and went on to win the NC. Beating OSU to boot. So everybody saw him as a "Michigan" man. This helped create another line of static in this frenzied atmosphere when Les ultimately didn't take the job for anyone else who came here, regardless of who it was if they weren't from Michigan. The majority of the vocal & upset UM fans were being ignorant & very very clannish about the football team they had gotten used to watching for so many years. Nobody took in account the real History. Like the simple fact that Fielding Yost came from West Virginia, or Bo from Ohio roots. So they were ready to lynch anyone for the slightest little miscue or idea that wasn't in the norm.
As soon as the hire was actually made many didn't even know who RR was. He was an outsider already in the fact that nobody had ANY familiarity with him or any reason to believe in him. Then they realized that he wasn't just a new coach but a spread offense coach, which meant CHANGE. The biggest scariest word ever! How was 100+ year old, 3 yards & a cloud of dust traditional Meeeechigan football going to change to this "gimmicky new phase" of football?! Not in Ann Arbor!! The stage was set. A villain had come and stole the show. Took it over for the NOW "perfect, loved & adored by almost all again Lloyd Carr". This guy never had a chance.
The Free Press(YES THE FREE PRESS WAS THE #1 MEDIA CULPRIT) among many other media outlets started to twist, overhype & push negative press on RR every chance they got. Starting with overblowing the Rich Rod/WV buyout issue. Taking it to the level of the Enquirer gossip column.
Then the traditions were attacked. By defectors as well as people who were so used to what WAS instead of what IS. Basically it was nitpicking at RR for not knowing every last detail of Michigan football culture. This was just more overblown drama, & yes the DTP played it well.
Then the 2008 season became a disaster for many & most reasons I believe were out of Rich Rods control. Nobody seems to realize that he didn't run Mallet out of town. Mallet didn't fit into the system & had pro potential, he knew what was best for him & he already had friction on the team BEFORE RR came in. The others who might have stayed(Mannigham, Arrington) just felt like this wasn't going to work for them. So you lost the leading QB statistically in UM history in Henne, the all time leading rusher in Michael Hart, Probably the best OL ever at Michigan-#1 NFL draft pick-Jake Long & Shawn Crable and two of the best receivers in college football to the NFL, plus the ONLY viable QB you had to a transfer. This was before the team ever took the field to play a game. The fridge was more than empty. The power had failed. Even if they had hired a pro-style coach & Mallet, Mario & Adrian had stayed it was going to be a down year & it definitely would have slowed down the future.
Then Rodriguez makes the ONE mistake that I will say is almost entirely his fault. He put all his eggs in one basket with Terrell Pryor. He should have not took the chance on TP and worked hard on other kid(S). But he didn't. He got burnt by a teenager who I still believe in my heart knew he was never coming to Michigan. This hurt us (AND EXTREMELY HELPED OUR BIGGEST RIVAL) so bad in the end that its ridiculously hard to speak of without getting infuriated. Because now we have to take the field with absolutely no talent at all, at the QB position. Now we start 2008 with the worst 2 QBs in Michigan history to ever to start more than one game, & they took the field with a bunch of other freshman & 3-9 ensues. Basically adding fuel to this fire every game that went by.
So the season ends & we are 3-9, records & streaks are broken & some in embarrassing fashion. Now, the people who hated him to begin with feel they are justified for everything they had said before, when really they aren't & the media, fans & our rivals never get off this train. Just waiting for an excuse.
Then along comes "investigative journalism".....
Hey everybody my name is Michael Rosenberg I talked to a bunch of freshman & took certain words out of context, used mal-contents anonymously, took words from a few players not completely happy or buying in & turned it into a scandal all because I have a personal dislike for RR. I can write at this dying major publication without a solid story or facts & speculate to create a major problem for Rich & his team 7 days before kickoff! Yayyy!!! Then I can add that I did it for journalism & because its NEWS. I have the reason of responsibility for the american reader to do this even though I am throwing the supposed school & team I love under the bus. I need to report this because its SOOO important & Rich Rod is taking Michigan down. Forget that the GPA is the highest its ever been. Thats besides the point.
This is "corruption" at the highest level folks!! Nothing like Maurice Clarett, or Reggie Bush!! This is players practicing too much! Practicing! This is about dumb a$$ kids setting up 3rd party cocaine deals & getting immediately thrown out of school! Not about players beating the crap out of other athletes, spending 4 months in jail & then 2 days after release being at practice. Thats not a story. Nor is it a story of over practicing at MSU because I asked a couple guys if they ever did & they said they didn't. So no story there. Only at Michigan. The place I love & want to see succeed at the highest level. You know, like they did against App St., Oregon, Ohio State the last 8 years, USC, or Texas in those bowl games. I miss that & I don't wanna see anything new that I know doesn't work. I mean WV was only 1 game from the National Championship until Pat White got hurt in the first quarter with 3 star, sub standard recruits. Don't you understand RR could never win here with Michigan's recruiting power. That wouldn't make any sense. Winning titles with the spread or similar offenses isn't possible. I mean Florida, Texas & LSU don't count. So I am sorry folks, I Michael Rosenberg just can't let the RR atrocity play out. I have to save us!! I need to make it even scarier for any other coach to ever want to come to Michigan & try my hardest to set Michigan back like ND, Nebraska, Alabama & every other powerhouse that has had it's "inevitable" fall for the sake of keeping the program safe. It happens to us all people & I hope you understand my motives. Its the love that carries me. My love for Michigan & the great Lloyd Carr. My love of all the records we have established and how so many were broken last year. I want to ensure that we don't rise up from those ashes with a bad guy like Rich Rod. I want to get rid of him and keep those records that we still have going by sending the program into oblivion. . . . .
Bottom line for everyone out there that loves Michigan is that you haven't given Rich a chance. He was brought in to make us relevant again & if you are a detractor, then you are making his job 10X harder by not getting behind your coach & embracing change. I see & hear people on message boards, blogs, in articles & on talk radio calling out a man who really hasn't done anything but try to accomplish his job. Its just stupidity for anyone to deny that a lot of Michigan fans are spoiled rotten with success & are also frozen like deer in the headlights with their complacency. Simply put most haven't accepted Rich Rodriguez at Michigan out of pure ignorance, arrogance & total fear & panic. Throw in a dash of negative media every other day to perpetuate it & you create a divided culture who looks lost to all the outsiders.
(thanks Rosenberg you whiny slimeball for making recruiting 10 times harder for us-especially with the top kids on the fence)
So the hate is thick. The pressure is even thicker & the clock is ticking. I just hope some great things happen before the time runs out. Because this backlash has made the time shorter & the job mission ALMOST impossible. I agree with most though If this team starts winning, this will all go away like the dinosaurs. So I am hoping and praying this Saturday starts off with a bang! I hope Rosenberg doesn't succeed. I hope these kids get a chip & rally around their coach, because this BS just made this weekends game against Western one of the biggest games in Michigan Football history. I LOVE BLUE WITH ALL MY HEART. HAIL TO THE VICTORS.

------------------------------------------------------------I am just curious how many out there agree with my HUGE opinion, or what a lot of you overall think that I don't see.

I know there's a lot of collective rage out there about the situation, so before you read this, take a deep breath.

From a media relations standpoint this story sucks. Michigan is getting dragged through the dirt and most people won't read far beyond the headline.

From a team standpoint, this is probably a huge unifying moment, the line in the sand, us against the world. Think about how angry the Mgoblog community is, and consider the fact that it wasn't your teammates that were mislead and ambushed, it wasn't your coach, the guy you work with every day, who was dragged through the mud. Your anger probably doesn't even approach the team's collective anger about the situation.

With the Athletic Dept and coaches probably instructing players not to talk to any media, there's no outlet, no way to defend their coach. Each passing day is only going to make the anger more intense, as more BS is piled on. The only way to improve the situation is going to be on the field. Come Saturday, every WMU player might as well be wearing a Snyder or Rosenberg Freep jersey. I have no doubt that Michigan will be hitting hard right out of the gate.

(Note: I'm not saying we're going to be head hunting/doing stupid things like a Crable or Butler. I think it will be a tight, focused anger. Execute, execute, execute, without pity. Also I'm told there's an ESPN article that corroborates some of this. Go Obi.)

There's been some talk about this being a distraction. While I agree that this is impacting our greater community and possibly Rich Rod himself, I doubt the players that have bought into his system (aka, the starters and key contributors) give a flying f*** about Rosenberg's allegations. Do you think they're going to take Rosenberg's side over Rodriguez's, that this story has instilled doubt into their minds? They know the results of their summer work. They know they have to avenge a 3-9 season. They know only winning will shut the critics up and will be more motivated than ever.

And on the flip side, Rosenberg, and the Freep by extension, will probably lose lots of access with regard to Michigan athletics. Good luck talking the athletes and coaches now; they probably wouldn't even admit that the sun is shining or that snow is wet to a Freep staffer (Rich Rod forces students, players, to fight, with snow!)(Follow up: anonymous players state: "I've never seen anything like this" "He just stood there and laughed")

So, to summarize: Team is Angry. Will try and use anger on the field to win the games. This strategy may work. Pad levels will be good. However, if Pad Levels are bad, this strategy also may not work. Watch the game to find out.

The Detroit Free Press is in its death throes, its breath rattling in its throat as it gasps for a last spark of life. Desparate, it reaches out for anything that could save it, like a man hanging from a cliff reaching for a single tuft of grass, knowing full well that the grass is not strong enough to pull him up, but knowing he has no other choice.

The decline of newspapers did not start with blogs or the internet. It really started with cable TV. The whole point of a newspaper is to get you the news faster than any other way, and hopefully the correct news. Unfortunately for the Free Press, I can watch 24-hour cable news while the paper is still being printed, and I can wake up in the morning and get sports scores that didn't even make it into the paper. So the newspaper, in order to survive, has to change its entire purpose.

One way to survive, the only one I think could work, is to turn the newspaper into more of a large-scale local magazine that comes out on weekends, and maybe once during the week. Instead of reprinting wire reports, and having short, shallow articles on a host of subjects which contain less information than what is easily accessible on the web, they could devote whole pages to single investigative stories. Five-part features on corruption in city government. Multi-page explanations of the details of health care reform bills. You know, NEWS. This is the hard way. It requires people to, you know, be journalists. Maybe, if you are writing a story about, say, someone breaking a rule, it would be useful to reprint said rule, and perhaps compare the alleged behavior to the rule in a less than superficial manner. This method takes time, thought, and journalistic skill. Do it right, and people will pay MORE than 50 cents a day for it (or whatever it is that the Freep charges). Hell, we donate money to bloggers that provide them with in-depth information, when we could still have it for free!

(Side note: this is a good opportunity to show Brian a little love.)

The other option is to go the other way. To publish even shallower, more sensationalistic stories with even less information. Use the banner headline to get people to fork over 50 cents (or a lot more, since this came out on a Sunday). Never mind that the article consists of little but insinuations and innuendo; people paid us for printing it! Plus, it's not like we had to spend any time or money writing or researching it. Mission accomplished!

There is a demand for information, but current newspapers don't supply
information that people can't get for free on the internet. Newspapers don't exist to provide people with news; they exist to provide their owners with money. In order to do so, they have to provide a service for which people will pay money. As any
business owner will tell you, the key to a successful business is to
sell something that people want, and preferably something they can't
get elsewhere. Right now, the Free Press doesn't do either. And that is why it fails.